Manipur's former chief minister N Biren Singh, in his first public reaction to a report by a Delhi-based non-profit on the ethnic violence in the northeast state bordering Myanmar, alleged the report "serves only to deepen divides and prolong mistrust and it may even promote misunderstanding."
In the report, the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) alleged Mr Singh played a partisan role and also flagged alleged complicity of state security forces in arming non-state actors and allowing widespread violence to occur unchecked.
Mr Singh's comments came hours after another non-profit, Human Rights International Federation, threatened to file a criminal defamation case against PUCL.
Human Rights International Federation in a statement alleged the "independent people's tribunal" report on the Manipur ethnic violence "fails the test of neutrality as it presents a narrative exclusively from the perspective of one side of the conflict, acting not as a reporter of news but as a partisan protagonist."
The executive summary given at the beginning of the PUCL report concluded that "the violence was not spontaneous but orchestrated, enabled by armed Meitei vigilante groups like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, and facilitated by state complicity and law enforcement failures."
Meitei civil society organisations and people from the valley community living in relief camps after they lost their homes in Kuki-dominated hill areas have strongly criticised the report over what they called a perceived silence on the role of heavily armed and well-trained Kuki militants who participated in gunfights and recruited teens under the name of 'village volunteers'.
They also alleged the report's narration of the sequence of events leading to the outbreak of ethnic clashes and hostilities in May 2023 heavily relied on information supplied by Kuki organisations, leaders and professors.
They also alleged key issues missing from the report, such as politicians especially from the controversial Any Kuki Tribes (AKT) category who allegedly instigated Kuki mobs before clashes began on May 3, 2023, and the use of language seen to be biased and partisan ("Kuki-Zo communities were 'driven' out of the valley. Meitei communities 'left' tribal-dominated hill areas.")
The former chief minister, acknowledging the move by the Human Rights International Federation, said others organisations are also planning to take the legal route.
"I believe many right-minded organisations are preparing to follow with legal actions against the biased and divisive organisation like the PUCL for attempting to divide Manipur through its obnoxious report. At a time when Manipur needs healing, reconciliation and unity, such publications serve only to deepen divides and prolong mistrust and it may even promote misunderstanding," Mr Singh said in the post on X.
Mr Singh faces a petition by a Kuki group in the Supreme Court, seeking an investigation into leaked audio tapes in which a voice purportedly of him was heard admitting his hand in the ethnic violence as a result of his policies.
The PUCL in its report recommended the setting up of a special investigating team (SIT) under the Supreme Court's supervision to probe all cases of ethnic violence and the role of the security forces. The SIT should investigate incidents of hate speeches which occurred directly prior to and during the conflict and arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, including political figures and state functionaries, and the state government should provide adequate protection to all the witnesses, the PUCL report said.
The team members visited a number of relief camps in Manipur to talk to survivors, including children, women and elderly displaced on account of the conflict. Thereafter, a major part of the report comprised meeting people from Manipur who came to Delhi to speak to the PUCL team.
The PUCL, currently led by rights activist Kavita Srivastava, was formed under the aegis of Jaya Prakash Narayan as People's Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights (PUCLDR) in 1976. It was re-christened as PUCL in 1980.
The valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki tribes, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur, have been fighting over a range of issues such as land rights and political representation. Over 260 have died in the violence and nearly 50,000 have been internally displaced.
The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kukis who share ethnic ties with people in neighbouring Myanmar's Chin State and Mizoram want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.
